Congress president Rahul Gandhi on Monday demanded the resignation of Union Finance Minister Arun Jaitley, citing reports that suggested that the government had prior information about Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi planning to flee.

Sharing the report on microblogging site Twitter, the Congress chief alleged that government did not arrest Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi despite evidence because the latter had hired Finance Minister Jaitley’s daughter as lawyer.

The Gandhi scion tweeted, “8 months before they were allowed to flee, the IT dept. wrote a 10,000 pg report on Chota Modi & Choksi’s massive fraud. Govt had evidence to arrest them. But didn’t because FM Jaitlie’s daughter was hired as Choksi’s lawyer. FM Jaitlie must resign immediately.”

The attack by the Congress president came hours after his party’s spokesperson Randeep Singh Surjewala alleged that Prime Minister Modi-led central government was informed by the Income Tax department about the fraud committed by Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi eight months before they left India.

“Information that Nirav Modi is about to flee the country after fraud of Rs 23,000 crore was there with Modi government through I-T Dept report eight months before Nirav Modi ran away. If Modi ji and Jaitley ji knew about Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi, then how did they run away?” asked the Congress spokesperson.

“From June 2017, when this report came, till May 2018, when all these fugitives ran away, Sushil Chandra was chairman of the Central Board of Direct Taxes (CBDT), under which Income Tax Department works. What was his role in helping Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi run away?” Surjewala further said.

Surjewala had accused both Modi and Jaitley of knowing eight months in advance about economic offenders Nirav Modi and Mehul Choksi planning to leave the country.